It looks like Idris Elba might be the next Bond after all

Daniel Craig ain’t gonna be Bond no more, baby - this we all know - so who’s going to step into his immaculately-polished shoes? Well, the gauntlet is full of potential rogues: Tom Hiddleston, Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill, David Oyelowo, Michael Fassbender and our personal choice, Big Narstie. But who will the bigwigs plump for? Who will actually get their martini shaken, not stirred?

Well, it’s looking like it’ll be Idris Elba. His name has been floating around ever since the Sony hack when an email was leaked from studio co-chair Amy Pascal that said “Idris should be the next Bond.”

Since then, Idris himself has repeatedly denied his involvement in the face of a million internet rumours hurled towards him from every possible angle.

Idris Elba having a natter to Sabrina Dhowre, George Clooney and Amal Clooney at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May

But hey! Now it looks like there’s something a bit more concrete we can cling onto.

Supposedly director Antoine Fuqua spoke of a meeting with Bond producer Barbara Broccoli (seriously, what a great name) in which she said “it is time” for a non-white actor to take on the role, and that the front-runner was Elba.

Fuqua also said: “Idris could do it if he was in shape. You need a guy with physically strong presence. Idris has that.”

Which sounds a little like he’s saying Idris isn’t currently in shape, which we might take as a bit of an insult if we were him, but then he’s a nice guy so he probably isn’t doing that.

Either way, we’ve got the next Daniel Craig-starring Bond to come next, which will be directed by Danny Boyle and written by Trainspotting writer John Hodge. The head of US distributor MGM said of the film: “We couldn’t be more thrilled than to bring the next 007 adventure to the big screen, uniting the incomparable Daniel Craig with the extraordinary vision of Danny Boyle.”